It’s exactly 20 years since Samus Aran first faced the Motherbrain and the Metroid menace (In English anyway, Metroid appeared on Nintendos FDS a year earlier in Japan).   She spans the growth of video games and the lasting poularity of the series is due entirely to the sheer playability of the games… no hype or hard core fan base is necessary when you have a gameplay model as close to perfect as this.

Indeed,  there is a Metroid game for every Nintendo system ever released with the exception of the Gameboy Color and DS… (But more on that later).  Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has been released for Nintendo’s Wii to coincide with this anniversary and they’ve put the benchmark Super Metroid out on the Virtual Console too.  Corruption is the 3rd and last in the Prime games, the sub series that took Samus from 2 to 3 dimensions and into the popular realm of the FPS.

It’s been received with universal praise, most reviewers pointing out that although little has changed since the first Metroid Prime 6 years ago the addition of the Wii controllers and the new longer storyline more than make up for Nintendo’s ‘It aint broke’ approach.  Earlier in the year at E3,  several journalists had some misgivings about the game but they all seem to have either been forgotten or rectified – Prime is the Wii’s first genuine ‘Hardware Seller’, with the amount of units being shifted I guess it wasn’t necessary, but it will be a very welcome boost for Nintendo as the PS3 and 360 price cuts kick in.

Check out the vid of Metroid Prime 3 below, it pushes the Wii’s graphics to their limit and it looks suitably gorgeous:

Gamers favouring the PS3 were hoping for a hardware shifter of their own in Heavenly Sword, a game touted as the PS3s answer to the God of War games.   Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have walked the fine line of repetition vs gameplay that the GOW games managed so expertly.  Many reviewers praised the dynamism of the story (although most went on to criticize the 7 hour play time) and there can be no doubt that it’s a great looking game (video below) but it just goes to show that even in an age of HD and next gen consoles how it plays is still the bottom line.

Warhawk, on the other hand, is a different matter.  A game that exists entirely as an online multiplayer experience and available to download or buy at your local games emporium it has journos and gamers both in raptures about its varied game modes and frenetic action.  About the only criticism you will find from anyone about this game is the price… I downloaded game for $40 is a hell of a leap of faith and the retail version costs an extra 20 bucks by virtue of coming packaged with a (sub-par) Bluetooth headset.

But lets not be too negative, the PS3 is in need of great games however they get onto the system and this very highly rated battle action sim whereby you take on the enemy on foot, from the air and in ground based vehicles – with seemless transitions - will be very welcome to PS3 owners… as long as they don’t want a one player mode.

Take a gander:

Despite a couple of great old schoolers cropping up on the XBLA,  namely Streets of Rage and Super Puzzle Fighters (HD Remix) the 360 doesn’t have a swanky exclusive retail release this week but rather shares Tiger Woods 08 with just about every other machine out there.  If you play Tiger 07 and you’ve played an EA game before you know what to expect, more of the same with a few tweaks.  Luckily, the 07 game came out early in the life of the 360 so the graphical advances are very clear… even if the gameplay ones aren’t.  There’s no doubt this is the best golf game around, it will just be better if you haven’t played last years version… or the year befores even.

The DS,  gets, a great new version of the game, again the previous version was ruched out to get onto the new system and it was fairly obvious but EA have really pushed the DS to it’s limits – and unfortunately, occasionally beyond – this time. The game runs in full 3D on both screens at 30 fps, a frame-rate that will be familiar to PS3 owners by now…

I mentioned in the opening paragraph the lack of Metroid on Nintendo’s portable system, well, there’s been a long standing rumor that arose from a two year old leaked Nintendo software list that a DS exclusive title called Metroid: Dread will take Samus back to her 2D origins.

Fuel has been added to this fire by the inclusion of a message hidden in Prime 3 that can be found by scanning a particular object,  check out the screen shot (courtesy of IGN) to see what the fuss is about.

As great as a Metroid game for DS would be, especially considering the fantastic quality of the two GBA games Zero Mission and Fusion,  I can’t understand why Nintendo would go to the trouble of keeping the game a secret.

Monster Hunter Freedom 2 may not be a title that screams high sales and mass appeal to you but in Japan this PSP game was the first to shift a million copies and in it’s release month it pulled in over 80% of sales for Capcom across all platforms.

Now you’re interested.

The game is a bit of a crossover – you know a game that sells that well in Japan is going to have RPG elements and you’d be right but MHF2 has enough action to keep the likes of me (I.e. people who still well clear of RPGS) happy.  Over 250 missions form the basis of the gameplay, I won’t patronise anyone who reads the front of the box by explaining what these involve.

As unlikely as it that this game will shift anywhere near as many English language copies as it did in the East it is clearly a quality title, another quality title in the PSP arsenal which this week got a (very good) Tiger Woods port and it’s own (average) version of Ghost Recon 2.

Since it’s been a very Metroid themed Console Yourself this week I might as well continue with it into a last question for anyone still reading down here at the foot of the page.

Simple One really; What’s your favourite Metroid Game?

• Do you think the original is still the best for the NES?
• Did the Gameboys Metroid II rock your monochrome world?
• Was Super Metroid the one that earned your love?
• Or did the GBA’s Fusion tick all your boxes? Or was the re-imagining of the original with Metroid ‘Zero Mission’ for the same machine the perfect blend of old and new?
• And what about the Prime games? Does all that old school stuff feel a little flat to you?

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Posted by Jaguar Wong in Console Yourself, Sci-Tech & Video Games • Add to del.icio.us Add to Digg